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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

The Rajouri police
have booked about 10 Army men, including a Major and his Captain wife, for
organising an attack on a police party.

Noushera SHO
Inspector Yashpal said Major Utsav was travelling in an Alto car along with his
wife Captain Urvi Bhattacharya and one-year-old daughter yesterday. He was
stopped by a police party at Gujral Chowk as the car had tinted glasses.

Inspector Yashpal
said he told the Major that the use of tinted glasses was not allowed in
vehicles. This infuriated Major Utsav and an altercation ensued between them.
The police seized the car. Major Utsav informed the ADS unit about the incident
and around 10 Army men reached the spot.

“Army men thrashed some
policemen with lathis and rifle buts. The Major tried to drive away the car
forcibly, but could not succeed,” said the SHO.

The Major, his wife and other
Army men had been booked under various Sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC)
and the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), the SHO said. SN Acharya, Officiating PRO,
Defence, however, said there was no use of force during the incident. “Reports of
attack on policemen are incorrect. The Army has, however, ordered an inquiry
into the incident,” he added.

Major Utsav is posted at the
IME unit at Garhi while his wife is posted as a doctor at the ADS unit in
Noushera tehsil.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131217/nation.htm#10

63 Cavalry celebrates 1971 victory

Tribune News
Service

New Delhi,
December 16

Army’s 63 Cavalry,
which was part of a five-pronged simultaneous armoured attack on East-Pakistan
in 1971, today culminated its two-day celebrations and reunion to mark the 42nd
Battle Honour Day.

The regiment has
the distinction of earning battle honour of ‘Bogra’ and Theatre Honour ‘East
Pakistan’ in 1971. The regiment with its five-pronged attack was referred by
the Pakistanis as the “Ghost Regiment”.

The regiment
celebrated the event at Khasa, Amritsar. A “Tresath Seema Sampark Motor Cycle
Rally” was also flagged in by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) KG Jalnawala, the
senior-most veteran of the regiment.

The team of four
riders led by Lieutenant Lionel Joseph Wilkins was flagged off from
North-Sikkim by the GoC 33 Corps Lt Gen KJ Singh, who is also the Colonel of
the regiment. The riders covered a distance of 2,795 kilometers.

A sound and light
show showcasing the journey of the regiment its raising in January 1957 in
Alwar and important events along the journey.

Some of the
veterans, such as Lt General SS Mehta (retd), who was the leader of the Tank
troop that first entered Dhaka, were also present.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131217/nation.htm#16

To strengthen ties, India to host Japanese
navy in Dec-end

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News
Service

New Delhi,
December 16

In a bid to
strengthen ties with other nations, India under its ‘Look East’ policy will
host the Japanese Naval forces this month-end. It will host the navies of 20
other nations in February 2014 at a major event to be held in Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.

Ironically,
India’s globally competing neighbour China has frosty ties and disputes with
Japan and also with some of the 20 nations that will send their navies to India
in the first week of February 2014. The Japanese Naval forces called the Japan
Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) would be here at the end of this month as
part of the ‘Japan India Maritime Exercise’ - JIMEX, sources said.

The Japanese will
bring along three of their warships and India would have the same number. The
first such exercise was held in 2012 and the second comes just months after
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had
announced in Tokyo in May that sea-based forces of the two countries would
conduct joint exercises on “regular basis with increased frequency”.

India and Japan
already have a bilateral maritime affairs dialogue, the first meeting of which
was held in January this year in New Delhi. Announcements made by the two Prime
Ministers have made Beijing react rather sharply. The country’s ruling
Communist Party-run newspaper the ‘Global Times’, wrote an article “India gets
close to Japan at its own peril”.

Another
mouth-piece - ‘People’s Daily’ - termed the Japanese as “petty burglars”. And
this ‘warning’ to India came less than two weeks after Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang ended a three-day visit to India (May 19-21) amid promises of resolving
the 167-year-old boundary dispute with India.

The next step will
be when India would play host to 20 nations as part of exercise Milan, a
bi-annual event, closely watched by China.

Some of the
invitees like Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have overlapping claims and
disputes with China in hydrocarbon rich South China Sea. The Milan exercise
that first started in 1995 as part of India’s “Look East” policy with just five
countries participating in it has been growing as India expands its footprint
eastwards.

New Delhi needs to
protect the sea lanes of communication that carry cargo-laden merchant ships
and has assumed the role of the “net security provider” in the Indian Ocean.

Trade between
India and ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) countries is likely
to reach $100 billion by 2015 and most of it will be through the sea route that
passes through the Straits of Malacca.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131217/edit.htm#1

Consolidating ties

India and
Afghanistan move closer

President Hamid
Karzai’s visit to India is one that both sides will look at with satisfaction.
He has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the 2011 Strategic Partnership
Agreement has borne fruit. India will now provide military equipment to the
Afghan armed forces in addition to the training and other assistance that it is
rendering. This may even include helicopters configured according to the Afghan
specifications. In recent years, the role that the Indian armed forces have
played in providing essential help to the Afghan army has increased, which is a
natural corollary of the withdrawal of the Western forces from the war-weary
nation.

India and
Afghanistan have a long-standing relationship, one that dates back to centuries.
In the post-2011 Afghanistan, India provided substantial aid in the form of
infrastructural development and medical assistance, while carefully keeping
Indian soldiers off the ground in Afghanistan. It has kept its strategic link
intact while performing a delicate diplomatic dance to allay regional
apprehensions of its role. It now seems that Kabul's request for more military
assistance, too, has met with a positive response. It can well be argued that
India needs to up the ante by training more than the limited number of Afghan
National Army officers and men that have received training so far. The Indian
Army has a proven track record, and its help has been acknowledged by the
Afghans.

President Karzai
has performed the difficult task of marginalising the Taliban, whose writ ran
large over Afghanistan before 2001. The country faces a tough time ahead as the
Western powers withdraw their soldiers and the Afghans look at a future where
they will have to fend for themselves. India needs to invest more in Afghanistan's
future, not only economically, as it has done by providing over $2 billion in
aid, but also by helping the Afghans to look after their internal security. The
volatile situation in Afghanistan with the Taliban on one side and the
Karzai-led government on the other, will continue to throw up challenges.
However, as the visit of the Afghan President shows, there is still a
tremendous reservoir of goodwill that the two countries can tap into as they
look at a brighter future.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131217/edit.htm#5

A Brigadier’s
riposte to the red beacon

Lieut-Gen (retd)
Baljit Singh

A few days ago
when the Supreme Court pronounced on curbing the unseemly proliferation of red
beacons mounted atop official cars, I wondered whether their Lordships were
guided by the past that till August 1947, this symbolism was confined almost
exclusively to commanders (Brigadiers and above) in the armed forces alone.
Much like their badges of rank, the red beacon was simply an additional
trapping of command as distinct from any symbol of office per se. And I was
reminded of a hilarious story of how Lieut-Col Barry Jackson (BJ) strove to
preserve this cherished distinction.

BJ was reclusive
by nature and it suited him that they had a bungalow, without any neighbours.
After office-hours, his passion lay in his well-equipped workshop in the
largest room of their bungalow. He would be building or repairing his
sail-boats and/or his faithful, old Morris car. Suitable attachments were
fabricated either to his own designs or borrowed from sporting magazines to
carry one sail boat complete with the riggings upon the car roof. When almost
every one congregated at the Officer's Institute on Saturday evenings, BJ in
his dungarees would be readying the car for the Sunday family outing, sailing
and picnicking with their pet dogs.

Perhaps the most
loveable trait came to light when BJ was promoted to Command 19 Artillery
Brigade, the only at the time (1950s) in the Srinagar valley. It was a common
austerity practice in the Army those days to prescribe the maximum mileage
limit, for each vehicle by type, for the year. However, the motor-cycles were
kept outside the ambit of any such restrictions. So when Brigadier BJ’s staff
car had logged its annual mileage quota, and there were four months ahead yet,
he simply commandeered an Army motor cycle to discharge his command functions.
His staff rose to the occasion. The machine was given a fresh coat of paint and
the commander’s pennant was duly mounted atop the front mud-guard. One star
plate was bolted to the handle bar and in the rear, another replaced the
mud-flap. However, the staff were at their wits’ end as to where and how to
install the flashing red beacon? BJ with his inimitable humour simply replaced
his khaki beret with a striking pink-red one, when riding his machine! And in
the process, acquired the sobriquet “Red Beret Jackson”!

However, the
true-to-life BJ was in his elements sans any frills, that is, in olive-green
overalls, canvas shoes, a corn-cob smoking pipe (a la General Douglas
MacArthur) and the Grouse-shooter's tweed cap (the classic, golfing cap as
opposed to today's skull caps). Lean and upright like a bean-stalk, not an
ounce of fat, smiling grey eyes and a warm, big heart. He seldom lost
composure, spoke only when he must and was held in a kind of awe which comes
from genuine respect rather than fear of admonishment. And as they say, BJ
remained a “Verray parfit, gentil knyght” with or without the red beacon!

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131217/main4.htm

Antony: Chinese
incursions possible

Tribune News
Service

New Delhi,
December 16

Admitting that
local-level tensions along the India-China boundary were a reality, Defence
Minister AK Antony today said that future transgressions by troops could not be
ruled out totally.

He said that the
Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), signed in October, was helping in
sorting out irksome issues much faster.

Antony was
speaking after paying homage at the memorial at India Gate to mark Vijay Divas.
Vijay Divas is celebrated to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971
war.

He said issues
like transgressions were now getting resolved immediately in the wake of the
signing of the BDCA, inked when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Beijing.

Antony said:
"Our decision is to maintain peace and tranquillity. Whenever any incident
takes place... that possibility cannot be ruled out as the boundary is very long,
both sides should come together and resolved it amicably."

He was asked to
comment on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in the
backdrop of Chinese troops recently apprehending five Indian shepherds on the
charge that they were in Chinese territory and returned them only after a flag
meeting between the two sides.

India and China
have 167-year-old boundary dispute. Both sides dispute the alignment of the
4,057-km long Line of Actual Control -- the name of the de facto border between
the two countries.

The incident
related to the five shepherds had occurred in the Chumar sector located on the
south-eastern edge of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of
December.

With temperatures
in those areas plunging to minus 30 degrees Celsius, it is reported that the
horses belonging to the shepherds had strayed across the border and were
detained by the Chinese. There is no demarcated alignment of the LAC on the
ground.

On the incident,
Antony said the Indians who were apprehended by PLA troops were civilians and
not Army personnel and the matter was resolved through talks.

“Of late, we have been able to
resolve issues without much delays. That is an improvement,” the Defence
Minister said.

To a question on the border
pact with the Chinese, he said, "After the agreement -- by and large --
whenever any issue arises, we are able to resolve it as quickly as possible. It
does not mean that there would not be any issue as long as the India-China
border issue is not settled. There can always be a possibility."

India and China had signed the
agreement with an aim of preventing any possible flare-up between the two sides
along the LAC, where both the countries have been upgrading their
infrastructure.

Commenting on the ongoing
boundary resolution talks between the Special Representatives of the two
countries, the Defence Minister said that people should "not expect
miracles".

“What we are trying is that
till a satisfactory solution to the boundary issue is found, whenever incidents
take place on the border, through discussions and the official mechanism,
resolve those issues,” he said.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IBNS): Defence Minister A K
Antony and the three Service Chiefs paid homage at Amar Jawan Jyoti on the
occasion of Vijay Diwas - 2013 in New Delhi on Monday.

Every year, this
day is celebrated to commemorate the victory of Indian Armed Forces over
Pakistan leading to the historic creation of Bangladesh.

The Chief of Air
Staff Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral DK Joshi and
Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh laid the wreath along with the Defence
Minister and paid tributes to the martyrs who fell while fighting the enemy
during the 1971 Operation.

As the bugles
sounded the last post, two minutes’ silence was observed.

On the occasion,
the Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh and senior officials from all
the three wings of Armed Forces and Ministry of Defence were present.

On December 16
every year, citizens, officials, students and war veterans lay wreaths and
remember the sacrifices of the soldiers.

The anniversary of
Vijay Divas is observed across the country by paying tributes to the martyrs.

Close on the heels
of a visit by the US Defence Secretary, the head of the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan today met new Pakistan Army chief Gen
Raheel Sharif.

"It was a
routine coordination visit, the two discussed matters of mutual interest with
particular focus on Pakistan-Afghanistan border coordination mechanism," a
statement from the Pakistan military said about the visit by ISAF chief Gen
Joseph Dunford.

The trip came just
days after US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel reportedly warned leaders here that
if they failed to resolve protests stalling NATO supplies to Afghanistan, it
could be difficult to maintain political support in Washington for an aid
programme that has sent billions of dollars to Pakistan.

The Foreign Office
has rejected reports that Hagel had warned Pakistan during his quick visit to
the country.

On December 14,
Gen Sharif met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to devise a strategy for the early
resumption of suspended NATO supplies through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The supplies were
suspended last month after Imran Khan's party blocked routes running through
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which it rules, to protest against US drone strikes.

The Directors
General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan will meet each other when
they feel the need for it, Defence Minister AK Antony said here today.

"The two
DGMOs are talking and let them talk. Whenever they feel, they will meet. It is
up to them," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function to celebrate
India's victory in 1971 war with Pakistan.

The Minister was
asked why the meeting between the two DGMOs was not taking place despite directions
issued by prime ministers of the two countries in this regard.

"Of late, the
incidents of firing on the Line of Control have come down. Not completely, but
it has come down of late," Antony said on the situation on the LoC.

The DGMO-level
meeting was first proposed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's talks with
his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the US.

DGMOs of the two
sides talk to each other on Tuesdays and discuss the issue of ceasefire
violations on the LoC and the International Border.

Flag meetings to
be held at local formation commander level are mostly fixed during these talks.

This year, there
have been more than 150 ceasefire violations by the Pakistan side and they have
also carried out attacks inside the Indian territory on certain occasions.

The Indian Army's
preparedness on the LoC has also been questioned after raids by Border Action
Teams (BATs) of the Pakistan Army in January and August.

A newly developed
16 tonne capacity Heavy Drop System (HDS) consisting of a platform and a highly
advanced system of parachutes to drop loads successfully met performance
parameters on Sunday.The system, which
can drop loads of military stores such as vehicles including BMP class,
supplies and ammunition from IL76 heavy lift aircraft, demonstrated two
successful drops.

Defence sources
said three prototypes of the system designed and developed by the Aerial
Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), an Agra-based
laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had been
realised.

The system is an
extension of technology developed by DRDO for ‘P-7 HDS’, a seven-tonne capacity
HDS developed earlier and already accepted by Indian Army for induction.

Appreciating the
development, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and Secretary of Department
of Defence (Research and Development) Avinash Chander said the system offered
‘drop and drive’ capability and once inducted, it would considerably enhance the
capabilities of armed forces.“DRDO is
the prime agency for development of parachute systems and has developed wide
range of parachute systems for applications covering delivery of military needs
and human beings at battle field and remote locations, recovery (from spin) of
parachute system for Light Combat Aircraft and recovery system of Space
Recovery Experiment (SRE),” Chander added.

P-7 heavy drop
system (P-7 HDS) has been developed for paradropping military equipment such as
military vehicles and ammunition trolleys from IL-76 aircraft and comprises two
main sub-system-platforms and parachute sub-system.

The platform has a
set of removable wheels which provide transportability for load to be taken to
the airfield by means of towing it behind a suitable vehicle once the load is
prepared at the distantly located unit.

Among various
mechanism, Platform Fastening and Release Lock (PFRL) is an important device
which ensures safe carriage and release of load as well as from the aircraft in
all possible flight manoeuvre conditions and emergency landing.

“The equipment kept on the
platform is lashed with chains. The parachute system consists of three stages.
The first stage is initiated on release command from air crew and extracts the
load from aircraft cargo bay into airstream. Two auxiliary parachutes assist
the opening of five main parachutes, each around 700 sq metres,” said a
scientist associated with the project.

These parachutes reduce the
descent rate to desired speed at touchdown. On impact with ground, parachutes
are released by automatic disengage unit (ADU) to avoid dragging and toppling
of load due to high surface wind, he added.

The design features built in
the system ensure aircraft safety during separation of such a large body in a
foolproof manner as well as smooth deployment of parachutes and landing of load
at pre-designated target point.

The P-7 HDS has been tested
extensively during the technical as well as users trials at different types of
drop zones in planes, deserts and high altitude areas to prove its operational
effectiveness.

During the development phase,
the P-7 HDS system has participated in Army’s joint exercise (Excope-2009) with
US Air Force and demonstration during Vayushakti-2010 at Pokhran witnessed by
the President.

After successful completion,
the system has been inducted in the Army. The bulk production of the parachute
systems has started at an approximate cost of ` 180 crore.